Sunday, September 28, 2014

We have been wanting to update the shop layout at our Glassell Park brick and mortar and I am so thrilled that we finally found some time to tackle the project on Friday!

I started with taking literally everything off the shelf on Friday morning... It's the best way to make sure that it is actually a "change" instead of a small update.

First I relocated my work corner from the side of the entrance door to the little nook which is adjacent to our back room. It made more sense since I am constantly going back and fourth between these two spaces and my desk has been looking pretty messy lately. I now work standing (have you read benefit of standing desk??) on my vintage Japanese Tansu if I have to be on my laptop or on my work bench. I love that it's all tacked in one corner.

The move of my work desk really opened up the front side of our shop space. I managed to place another really large work table on wheels (thank you Frido for bringing this from our garage). We also decked out a little corner near the door to be a station for our customers to play with the collection of analogue tools including stamps, embosser, stencil and make their notebooks extra special.

A big work table on wheels currently hosts a series of The Superior Labor items, mt masking tapes as well as Paper Twines. It's a fun corner where it feels like a perfect combination of analogue tools and travel. (two of our favorite topics!) We also have a whole new collection from Aika Felt Works and much anticipated Roterfaden notebooks (imagine... a versatility and longevity of Traveler's Notebook meets German Bauhaus!). These two collections will be added to our website soon but they are available in our shop as of today.

A lot is happening here in the shop and I am glad we continue to evolve as we grow.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Post travel days are always as adventurous as the actual travel... especially with kids. Jet lag is unpredictable for everyone and real life kind of hits us at the doorstep right when we get home. Satchi managed to get an upset stomach all the way from the return flight into the long weekend. So we rolled from LAX to an urgent care. Thank goodness for the jet lag. We were very awake to take her at 3am. I would assume that it must have been all the ice cream, sweets and sausages she consumed in last two weeks. Well... she was on vacation. What can I say?

Oh and Coco did not look like the picture below for the first three hours of our flight.

But then... if someone asked me on the street how was our trip? I would say "awesome" in the heartbeat including the first three hours of our flight from Frankfurt, upset stomach and everything between. Coming home, we packed our carry-on luggage light and just went with it without over preparing for kid's friendly travel. Instead we just dealt with whatever was happening as it happened.

We are so far from being amazing at traveling (as we really wish)... but each travel we take as a family, we get better, wiser and more patient. That's something to give a toast for and that's exactly what Frido and I did over an aisle with a glass of champaign when Coco finally looked like the below picture.

Both of them have a complete packaging and have never been used. They were our floor samples at our Glassell Park studio so customers picked them up and handle them in person to get the feeling of how the camel leather feels like.

We are completely sold out of the new Star Edition Traveler's Notebook in camel so I thought I would offer these two samples for a discounted price. You can find it here at our Baum-kuchen shop! Here are some close-up pictures of these samples. Please feel free to send me an email if you have any questions reg. these samples. (wakako@baum-kuchen.net)

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Our friend Tim introduced us to a nearby coffee shop in Altona. After spending a quiet afternoon there over a cup of coffee and shared sandwich with Frido, Tide cafe quickly became a place where I look forward to re-visiting when we're back in Hamburg. It was awesome that the owner's wife was a very sweet Japanese girl. After talking to her for a while, I learned that she has been living in Germany as long as I have been in the U.S. We talked in Japanese, English... then she and Frido talked in German. So cool that she was maneuvering in three languages so freely. I felt warm connection with her in what we shared as the ones who have Japanese heritage... but living in our adopted countries. What also inspired us was their unique business model. It's a lovely neighborhood cafe but they also carry a great collection of driftwood that Frank (the owner) passionately collects... from all over the European coasts. You can purchase oversized driftwood at this store... Frank also told us that he knows network of wood artisans in the area who might be able to make your ideas come true using the driftwood he sells. We love wood... and we LOVE driftwood. We also loved a life he leads. He operates a wonderful coffee shop but takes off for a few days at a time to collect driftwood to fuel his love for these wood... then he is ready to make more coffee. We are always looking for "a way of life" that inspires... and we definitely felt moved after our visit. Tomorrow we are leaving Hamburg to head home to Los Angeles. The idea of being in our home is so far away... that it feels strange to even think about it. We will take it in as we go!

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

After few gloomy days, sun and summer came back this morning to Hamburg! It happened to be that we were planning to visit Frido's old friend in the new harbor city of Hamburg... so we took the opportunity to do a little ferry ride through the harbor.

The day was full of adventures. Being on the boat, seeing the harbor from the water, walking through the new and old part of the city, eating amazing street food on a cobble street alley... then more boat ride back to our neighborhood, a boat cafe... then spending the end of the day at a beautiful beach... being with the girls.

I have noticed that my health has been so much better for last few days. My allergy has been bothering me less and I am walking tons everyday (but also eating amazing food to counterpart the output). I can't help to wonder if the overall improvement of my wellness is related to how much more relaxed I am here. Of course life is not all about vacation and taking a break from the real world... but I would like to take this as an opportunity to re-calibrate how/what we do at home when we are back in Los Angeles this weekend...

because life is about the spectrum of the photo worthy moments and ordinary everyday things... and everything between.